Proto Vauqun-Adzovъd
Summary Descendant of Proto Csillan (kinda...but not really, I gave up on directly deriving it a long time ago the vast majority of this is a priori). Basically Csilla's equivalent of PIE. Unlike PCS, PVA was actually reconstructed. In certain places I'll use blue writing to highlight etymology information that couldn't be reconstructed yet is known to me 'cuz I made the lang :P PVA had three major attested descendants, from east to west geographically: * Old Vauqun (the first VA language to be attested in writing, and also the only descendant of its branch)-abbreviated OV * Proto-Kfimea (which later split off into West Kfimea and East Kfimea)-abbreviated P Kf (W Kf & E Kf) * Proto-Žekora * Proto-Ngoto * Proto-Adzovŭd (which features the greatest geographic, cultural and linguistic diversity of the three PVA branches)- abbrivated P Adz Phonology Consonants Vowels As can be inferred from the graph above, all vowel qualities distinguished length and some nasality. Though all vowel qualities are rather uncertain, the greatest debate surrounds the roundedness of the vowel , which does not seem to show any partiality to either rounded or unrounded in its descendants. The most common consensus is that the vowel had various rounded and unrounded variants in specific phonetic, historical, situational and geographic contexts, which were stabilized by the various daughter languages. Thus, the preference over the grapheme for this phoneme which itself is historically ambiguous to a rounded or unrounded vowel. The stress was regularly placed on the second vowel of the root, unless that vowel was short and the following vowel was long (vowels lengthened via nasalization or other morphophonemics that were originally short do not affect this rule.) Phonotactics Hiatus are usually avoided in standard productive morphology, but within roots and more often in derivation they are generally allowed. Roots follow the structure ©CV©C(V), with several restrictions * The onset can consist of any single consonant, or a cluster of the nature of fricativefricative, fricative+ /r/ or -semivowel + /j, w, m, n/ (thus sf, vǧ, xr, ǧj etc. are all viable root onsets) * The first V can be any vowel of any length. If it is a nasal vowel, then it will always be followed by exactly one (non-nasal) consonant given the phonological history of nasalization * The next two consonants can be any two consonants that don't violate the following rules ** nasal consonants cannot be followed by any other consonant ** adjacent homorganic obstruents cannot disagree in voice ** in most other casesclusters of obstruents can disagree in voice, except that a plosive cannot be followed by a fricative differing in voicedness (therefore zevko is allowed, but togfeþk > tokfeþk) ** plosive-plosive combinations are restricted to either geminates or a series of a velar plosive followed by a non-velar. ** plosives cannot be followed or preceded by homorganic fricatives (<þ ð> pattern as homorganic with ) ** Morphophonemics Vowels underwent many shifts under certain conditions, with varying regularity: * Certain vowels raise or front before r and w in closed syllables /ɨ a o/ > /i e u/ -highly regular in short vowels, less common in long vowels. Word-final vowels followed by /r/ occasionally and sporadically lengthen, the impetus for this is unknown. Also note u + w > ū. ** For /w/ this rule has a puzzling level of productivity. * Vowels of any length nasalize before n and m (n and m subsequently disappear), /a e i ɨ o u/ > /ã ã ẽ ẽ õ õ/. This sometimes led to stem alternations, such as the noun kostą (sword) gen sing kostani * Vowels lax in syllables closed by a non-alveolar or non-dental voiceless obstruent /i e u/ > /ɨ a o/ * could not be long if it was the last sound of the word or if it is the last vowel of the word and is followed only by a resonant There were also a few grammaticalized consonant shifts which are discussed in the grammar section. Grammar Nouns Masculine Declension A-stems O-stems E-stems I-stems Y-stems The consonant shifts are as follows: * p t k b d g > f þ x v ð ǧ * fricative > + geminate * V(n m) > vowel + z * r > ǧ (sporadic) * sonorant > sonorant + z * vowel > vowel + z These shifts happen to the consonant right before the root vowel and they occur in every plural case except the nominative.a Feminine Declension Ō-stems Ū-stems OJ-stems Ē/I Stems JU-Stems Neuter Declension Unlike the fusional masculine and feminine declensions, the neuter paradigm is starkly agglutinative, suggesting that it was a recent development in PVA. Also, it features morphological (but not syntactical) ergativity. Pronouns The third person pronoun has a rather exceptional declension compared to the other personal pronouns There are also fyru (relative pronoun), sinu (distal demonstrative), sękje (proximal demonstrative), naku (interrogative.) They decline via the following paradigm. Note that pronouns formed with suffixes like -kje (proximal demonstrative ending) or -d (interrogative ending) deserve an extra note: they decline like a regular pronoun with the suffix after the case ending (cf. -dam in the natlang Latin or the construction ижє in Old Church Slavonic), except the nominative singular for the masculine gender is null (ie sinu + kje -> sękje, but siny + kje -> sinykje or naku + d -> naǧd, but nakjo + d -> nakjod) Adjectives The standard declension for adjectives is based on The comparative degree is formed via the infix -ęg- before the nominative singular. Most native adjectives form the superlative via the infix -aǧm- before the nominative singular, whereas other adjectives (presumably those borrowed from other languages) formed it using the adverb taǧmąk. Adverbs are regularly formed with the suffix -są. Several adjectives with a masc nom sing in -ytu have an irregular neuter nom sing in -yþ, all other forms are regular (affu/affy/affo & ēkju/ēkjy/ēkjo, but kefytu/kefyty/kefyþ). Verbs The above endings are added to the appropriate stem of a verb (each tense has a unique stem, given in a verb's principle parts.) Only the active voice features distinct endings for the imperfect and preterite tenses, the middle and passive voices just use one set of "past" suffixes. Note that the (j) in the imperfect active endings serves to prevent hiatus if the imperfect stem ends in a vowel, likewise the parenthetical vowels in the passive endings are present when added to a principle part ending with a consonant. For the passive second person plural, the (w) prevents hiatus while the (j) appears only after a consonant. The middle & present active systems have no historic epenthetic vowels, the consonant cluster simply tries to adapt to be pronounceable and legal (zrēd + kfe > zrēþkfe), but if the result was still difficult to pronounce (ie zrēd + t, vemap + p) speakers often insterted an epenthetic (zrēdyt, vemapyp) or simply drop the first obstruent (zrēt, vemap) In some languages, the became standard when the stem ends in any obstruent. Note that the impersonal present can also serve as a neuter abstract verbal noun First Principle Part The first principle part is usually the base root of the verb + the 1st person singular ending -ru. Exceptions to this include impersonal verbs (such as , where the first principle part is the present impersonal, and verbs were the base root is preteriteic in nature and the present is formed via derivation (usually the inchoative suffix -ðē), such as enweþk (I knew) pres 1s enweðēru. The first principle part is the source of all finite present forms of the verb and both active, the mediopassive participles of all tenses (note that the participle tenses differ from the finite verb tenses), and the supines Second Principle Part The second principle part gives the finite preterite forms for all voices. In verbs that feature reduplication, the second principle part is formed by lengthening the stem vowel (riaru (I live) > riāþk (I lived), voru (I go) > vōþk (I went)). In most other verbs, it's formed with the suffix -fe added to the root stem (togru (I say) > tokfeþk (I said)). This occasionally eats the last vowel before the 1st person singular (aneru (I travel) > ąfeþk (I traveled)) The most common exception to this rule, naturally, is preterite-root verbs, which lack any explicit morpheme for the preterite tense. Some verbs, though, form the 2nd pp via the prefix ki- (this usually appears in semantically passive verbs, such as sxenoru (ì sleep) kisxenoþk (I slept), but not all; vatyru (I sit) > vatfeþk (I sat). Furthermore, verbs with the prefix v/u-, replace this prefix with fe- instead of adding -fe- before the personal ending, and verbs with the prefix z(u)- transform into fj(u)- Third Principle Part The third principle part is only found in some archaic verbs, where it is formed via reduplication (ie riaru (to live) > reriajēk (I was living), voru (to go), vawojēk (I was going)). This root gives the imperfect forms of the verb. In every other verb the imperfect tense uses the 1st pp. Subjunctive Mood The subjunctive mood has reconstructed uses entailing desired, theoretical and possible actions. As far as subordination goes, the subjunctive was only used in conditional clauses, other secondary clauses were usually reserved for non-finite forms or the optative mood. In archaic or "reduplicating" verbs (discussed above), the subjunctive in all tenses is formed through a non-productive ablaut: riat (I live) > riot (I should live). Standard verbs take an infix -wy- before the personal ending in the present: ōǧot (I converse) > ōǧowyt (I should converse). Root-preterite verbs take this infix in the preterite tense, since for those verbs that tense is the most basic form. The preterite and imperfect subjunctives are regularly formed via the prefix vo-. Note that this takes the place of any other tense marker: ąfeþk (I traveled) > voaneþk (if I traveled) (the -fe- infix was removed), same with kiōttiþk (I witnessed) > voōttiþk (I should have witnessed). Note that hiatus is not blocked in this prefix, even when the vowels are identical. This and the regularity of both of these morphemes suggest that the subjunctive mood (outside of reduplicating verbs, at least) was a recent innovation at the time of late PVA. Optative Mood The optative mood is usually used in subordinate clauses of desire, command, purpose, etc. As a finite verb it functions similar to an imperative, which is otherwise lacking (or perhaps unreconstructable) in PVA. It is regularly formed (yes, even in reduplicating verbs) by combining the appropriate participle with a clitcized auxiliary (which is only conjugated in the present active, thus the tense and voice is only marked on the participle. Note that this results in the optative mood having a different tense distinction from other moods.) The auxiliary's conjugation is given below. The optative participle is translated as "wanting to verb" Compound Tenses The future and perfect tenses had a variety of periphrastic constructions to convey them, based on context, dialect and individual preference. I'm far too lazy to exhaustively list each construction, but fortunately they follow some pretty general patterns: the future indicative was formed with a construction such as a verb of going or having + the supine, or the future participle plus the verb to be (ajru, ājþk, eajjēk). Even with these constructions, the future optative was simply a more common and unmarked way to express future events that in some dialects it replaced the future indicative. The perfect was ubiquitously formed via the periphrasis verb of having + past participle, but don't be fooled; the perfect tense was ''not ''formed regularly, as there were a number of ways to express having. Typically, a verb such as "veryru" or "kuru," whose root meanings are closer to "hold" and "grab" respectively, was used. There was also a construction similar to those present in some modern day Slavic languages (although in Slavic languages the construction is not used to indicate perfect tense, just possession), with the subject in the locative case and the "possessed" (ie the verb's direct object) in the nominative case. In standard possessive clauses, the participle would agree with the object. Thus if one wanted to say "I have a visible animal" they would say "kēro ottysiwte vari (as)" (animal.nom.s see-past.pass.part.nom.s me.loc.s be.3s), where ottysiwte agrees with kēro. But if one wanted to say "I have seen an animal" they would say "vari kēro ottysiwtag (as)" (me.loc.s animal.nom.s see-past.pass.part.loc.s be.3s), note that the copula is optional in both circumstances. This particular periphrasis was standardized in OV and its descendants but is marginally attested elsewhere, with a few E. Kf languages being the most significant exception. Syntax SOV, postpositions, possessor-genitive, postposed adjectives, either pre or postposed articles, noun-numeral. Yes, this is hilariously underdeveloped and simplified, but for a proto lang I scarcely have the motivation to do more :P Lexicon On google drive Diachronics PVA to OV PVA to P Kf PVA to P Adz Example text Category:Proto-languages Category:Languages